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On Fan-Factions: A Guide
Proud Amerikan's garden of factions The Emirates was the first. It only lived a short time, however, before the catastrophic meteor of Paradox Wiki's server crashing blew it out of existence.....for a while. Then came nothing, but the first few tendrils of life began anew, in the forms of the Industry and Fortress. Half formed, never fully created, they sprouted up, and though they did not spread, they took root. Alone, they barely flourished.....but they flourished, nonetheless. Then....the Andeans came. And with them, a new, fertile area of ground was made, an area that was able to draw the attention of the seeds of the dead Emirates. Soon, the Emirates returned, having mutated and changed, alongside the Community. Then the Combine sprouted, first in the form of a mere Technocracy transplanted from a foreign land, but then adjusted, adapted, and ultimately changed from what it was into an all-new form, that too thrived. And with this, the three species grew strong, and met up with their fellow Industry and Fortress......and then, the wildflower factions these were threatened to intrude upon the gardener's already fruitful tame gardens. But yet, the gardener and his team did not want these flowers crushed or burned. They were beautiful in their own way, and could possibly even, one day, join the ranks of the flowers already on the Wiki. So they were transplanted, and were fruitful, and have started to flower. And with these five, more came. More flowers sprouted up, and it looks as if, with time, more gardeners may make this their own garden, and join tightly it with it's forebears. But now, signs of other wildflowers, flowers not suitable for the climate, have begun to sprout up, though thankfully only a few have been cast as weeds and burned. The gardens must be vigilant........and potential flowers must be able to match the requirements to thrive. .....OKAY! After that long-winded metaphor, it'sa me, ProudAmerikan! Though I may seem harsh or merely bull-headed at times, I do hope to see a great number of kicking awesome fan factions be realized, and made. Unfortunately, from a few factions that have been made recently, it appears that we may need a guide on how to make, develop, and perhaps even conceptualize a faction. Now, I know there's one on the main wiki: in fact, linking to that would probably be a good idea. And I will say that, as I don't know everything (shocker, isn't it?), the mods (or people who act like mods even if they aren't...BouncyTEM and myself comes to mind) should feel free to add more sections, fix spelling or grammatical mistakes, and in general try and improve or update this guide at any time. For now, at least, I shall update at various times, depending on how lazy or inspired I am, on the very basics of making a faction, lore-wise: Conceptualizing an Idea, World of Lore-Craft, and Visual and Design Work. I am also dubbing this a Work in Progress, because I do hope moderators and other users will also add more to this guide besides just me, and it is mostly open for edit. And now, I shall end this wordy introduction, and the real guide csn begin. This wiki is capable of producing beautiful flowers.....but sometimes one must be informed in order to avoid just producing weeds. --- ProudAmerikan Conceptualizing an Idea So, you want to make a faction. Good job! You've managed to survive the overwhelming awe of looking at a pile of writing and facts that have been bombarding you ever since you stumbled across this site/the main site. But before you can begin, we need to lay down a few rules for conceptualizing your factions. This will be made in the Top Twelve Things to Know When Conceptualizing a Faction. Why top 12? Because I feel like referencing the Nostalgia Critic. So, sit back, take heed, and prepare yourself for...... The Top Twelve Things to Know When Conceptualizing a Faction 1. Think About the Existing World: The first thing to do when coming up with a concept is background. Background, background, background, I cannot stress this enough. You need to, ideally, first go onto both the main Paradox Wiki, and then this very fan wiki, and read everything. Yes, everything. I say this because a faction cannot stand on it's own unless it works in, with, and for the background. Go read the information that abounds you, check out the various factions get a feel for why they exist, their various styles, any important developments, and so on. The trick to all of this is that you want your faction to be bang-on with the world. You need the faction to fit the theme of the world, the personality of it, and make sure it just works. For example, go look at the Paradox World. What is it? It's an alternate history of Earth that's using time travel to change (often humorously) real life nations and groups and piling them all in to an ever-shifting, ever changing world. Therefore, you can automatically discard any ideas that just don't mesh with this as well. One earlier proposed faction was the Adeptes Astartes, a group of space marine troops from a far off future. It was tossed in the trash bin automatically because it wasn't even close to anything that the Paradox world is. So read up as much as you can, and this can be enormously helpful in preventing you from making serious mistakes that will prevent your faction from even making it into the wiki. 2. Remember the Setting: Of related note, but slightly, different, is the setting. So now you know the world the faction will be in, and you've got some ideas for it. Let's say (for example, we'll just form one right now) you have an idea of a faction in your head. You're thinking you want a faction based around.....superheroes. Ya, why not? They're pretty cool. Okay, so they might not actually have superpowers...but wait, they are a group of people living near the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and they're Russian and they're shunned by the rest of the continent and..... Woah, there, boy. Hold it. Even if we were to assume that a faction of superheroes were to get in, that idea does not match the setting at all! The Paradox world is set in 1969, nuclear power is only held by the Atomic Chinese, and it's the Soviet Union, not Russia. The next important step in the conceptual process is fitting your faction to the setting. Realize what the time period of the piece is, and realize what that may or may not mean for your level of technology or areas. The Allies, for example, have computers at this point....but they're as big as a room still. Though individual factions may have their own areas of expertise, you've got to make sure your faction still fits into a 1969 Earth, with most of the little details that go with it. 3. Read the Rules....Again: Right. So you've got the setting and the world in your head, and you have the rough image pf your faction sketched out in your head. A group of people who idolize the superheroes from old Western comic books, and are trying to imitate them to acheive.....whatever their goal is. Perfect! So you immediate start thinking about how they'll work. First, they summon a big Zeppelin, that carries all their supplies, and lets units climb down, and can- Back up the truck, that's impossible. Before you can even begin to delve into the meat of your faction, the very least you must thirdly do is read the rules of the setting. There are certain things one cannot actually do, and if you have those as a central premise then your faction will be useless. Now, this is slightly unusual, because this rule is one that must be constantly updated. For instance, the Paradox team had the idea to put in Jade for Atomic China, which would act as a mutator. It wasn't until they started that they realized that Jade was, in fact, impossible to implement. Now, there's a number of things that might be impossible, and you should look over rules to make sure you at least can avoid most of them beforehand. 4. Find Yourself a Theme: Alright, you have an idea, you've read the rules, you know where it all will take place, and now you're ready to begin making your faction the best one out there! Well.....not really the best out there, but anyways.......so now you've got stuff. Good for you! What you need now is to put all that stuff together, and for that you need.....a Theme. A Theme is what, at heart, your faction is. It's a single word that could sum up everything that faction is and strives for. The Allies' theme, for example, is "Democracy". The Soviet theme is "Communism". The Empire theme is "Restoration". Thus, the theme of your faction needs to be important, something that the people in that faction can look and answer when someone asks, "What does you fight for?" So, using the previous faction, you'll go over the theme, try to make it unique, and something not done before. Looking over the old comic books (including that old Superman No.1 you got as a graduation gift from your grandfather), you notice that many of them seem to be idyllic in tone. Optimism hasn't been done yet, you think, as a theme, and so you decide that the factions's theme will be "Optimism". About this time, you should think about getting a name...."Siberian League", you decide, would be a nice name, as it lets one know that it is both A. In the Soviet Union, and B. More equalistic in tone. So, you've got the theme, and a step down from the theme you have..... 5. Start Making Motives: 6. Make the Faction Live: 7. Arrange the Aesthetics: 8. Geeze, You Should Probably Start A List Right Now: 9. Units: Making them "Flavorful": 10. Putting it All Together: 11. ???: 12. Profit!: KamuiK's New Factions 101 Step 1 - Originality Be as original as possible. It's absolutely NO use when you take entire tech trees or other stuff from existing factions, be they CnC or anything else. You are well allowed to base your ideas on something. I'll give you an example of the difference between "basing x on y" and "copying x to make y". Basing something on something else is often used for inspiration. I admit that originality is dead, with 1.2 billion people on the internet alone there just isn't something that is not like something else, but those things are still no copies, mostly. See the Brotherhood of Nod of classic CnC vs the Confederate Revolutionairies. Would you say those factions are the same? I mean, c'mon, both factions use a heavy range of stealth tactics including base-hiding towers, both clash with the "western countries good guys" faction on a regular basis, both have weak and versatile vehicles, weak and strong infantry and know how to give the enemy a hard time with harassment, underground tactics and generally pissing them off. But are they the same? Hell no, they aren't. The Noddies are a terror organisation, a religious cult, an international megacorp and lead by a bald alien dude, use lasers, ninjas, suiciders, rioters from south america, a broad range of biochemical and even atomic weapons (and sometimes even alien stuff) and show no regard for human/animal/plant life exept for their own uses. The confederates are rebels, but good guys, with proper reasons to liberate their homeland, they are clean, non-suicidal and use old, reliable tech with the one or other earthquake or storm generator thrown in for rule of cool. Thus I ask you again - are they the same? No. Copying now is a hole different thing, and what was done in several cases on the Wiki so far. The factions violating this tutorial and the rules overall were the Imperial Guard (40k - BAD thing), Adeptus Astartes (40k - BAD thing), Black Ops Nine (basicly GDI with stolen tech, not good), Alpha Legion (basicly Yuri, not good) and Intergalactic Space Communists (simply WTF). In all those attempts the makers took a pre-existing faction, copied their faction lists, did some small changes here and there, and were done. They didn't even bother to change most of the names. That's not being original, but ripping other people off. In a firm, this would be stealing of the content of other people, thus allowing others to sue them for a crime. We are not as bold, because we believe FUN>>>BAN. Basicly I am saying the following - don't look at something, think "oh that's cool" and take it over, without bothering to think over it for some time, because that's lazy and if anything leads to people getting pissed off. Now that's out of the way, so the greatest hurdle is away. Drafts and Ideas Make a draft. Before doing anything, especially a new faction, ask yourself a couple of questions: *Who are they? Where are they? *What do they want? *Why do they fight? *What is their combat style/doctrine? *What technology do they have *What CAN they do, what can they NOT do? General questions about their motives and ways. Not unit design, not structure design, not even the units themselves, but basic ideals and possibilities to work on. NOW come the more specific questions. *Are they balanced in theory? *In which way do most of their units work? *What do their units and structures basicly look like? *What do their technologies look like? *What effects will they have on the battlefield? The look and feel of the factions. Are their vehicles big, hulking tanks clad in black and dark grey? Gasmask mooks with ancient rifles? Or are they shiny, cool and hightech, superior trained infantry and cool ships/planes? Make sure to not exxagerate, but let if fit into the surrounding factions. Look at them to make sure your faction is not too much like another one. Also, IF you decide on a style, then follow it. Making a faction a scrapyard hunter with 3 dozen different styles does not work at all, and making something like the GLA can work, but mostly doesn't, exept you can well justify it. Got your ideas? GOOD, then NOW we come down to the pretty details. Nice boats OR how to make a stylistic faction You should now be ready to nail down details. For starters, make the basic tank, that's usually the simplest thing. Considering all your faction aspects, does your faction even use tanks? It should, honestly, except they really are not a tank faction at all. Anyway, what is your faction about? Fascist super-maniacs with a strong preference on vehicles? Your tank will probably be big, heavy, slow, with good stats (except probably speed) and a hefty price tag, and it will likely be dark and intimidating. Or is your faction good, friendly, cool and techy? Your tank might be rather bright, like a cool steel colour, all around a good workhorse to present that yes, you care about stuff, but can still dish out when needed. You may guess why the Guardian looks so much like a cross of Challenger and Leopard - for exactly the reasons I just gave you. Make your tank according to the style you choose eg voila. You just made a unit yourself. A home-made example - why do you think the Pahit's Typhoon Tank is amphibious and can produce infantry trenches? Because the Pahits are an island-based faction with a preference of digging in and staying where they settle down. Is your tank thought out? Good, then you can continue with other units, make more vehicles, infantry, boats, planes, structures, whatever. With good imagination you can come up with dozens of ideas. Collect them all, refine, sort out, combine, do everything so you get the style you set yourself reflected in your army list. Have fun, and stay original. SO, you read my help. If you didn't, thought TL;DR and just rushed to this line here, then you fail hard and don't deserve to be here but if you did and took the lesson, and maybe already hard an idea or two on your own, THEN congratulations you just made the first step into the right direction.